"The fact that you agree with them, just goes to show how badly you screwed up even helping them to begin with!" Emma snapped, storming down the street hard enough to feel the pavement through her sandals.
"The fact that you are still having a go at me is starting to seriously piss me off!" Anna snapped through gritted teeth. "We are not clichés! There is no a quiet smart twin and a rough bossy twin that tells the quiet one what to do all the time! If there were, I'd be the bossy one!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Emma blinked.
"I'm talking about you speaking for me back there!" Anna snapped. "I am perfectly capable of making my own choices."
"Like chosing to lie to your only sister?"
"I'm not lying to you!" Anna said, throwing her hands into the air. "I'm just not telling you something that is none of your business. I know Sam, I dated him, and I know Astrid too and I trust them both to handle it on their own. So I am letting them do their thing while I stay out of it. And I am making sure that you stay out of it too."
"You know Sam? You dated him years ago! And you've only spent, like, a day with Astrid!" Emma argued.
The two girls had not stopped arguing with one another since they had left Sam's front door. Emma was frustrated her twin was keeping secrets by not telling her who this secret person was and Anna still wasn't happy with the way she had tried to boss her sister around like that as if she couldn't speak for herself. Now neither of them could seem to settle down. At first they had tried giving each other the silent treatment but when that didn't satisfy them they had started shouting and screaming at each other. And the longer they fought the more upset they grew with one another. It was starting to draw attention from others who happened to pass by but neither sister cared.
G*O*N*E
Meanwhile, Sinder was being let out of the taxi cab and slowly shut the door behind her as gently as if it was made out of glass. She reached with shaking hands into her purse and handed over a good chunk of her money that she had been raising for no reason. The other half would have to be used to get her home again unless she called her father to come pick her up. She really didn't want to do that. She hadn't even told her parents that she was going out in the first place. If Sinder did they probably would have freaked and kept her locked in the house like they had been trying to do since she had been released from the psychiatric hospital.
Even now she was being forced to see a therapist every week to talk about her feelings and her thoughts and anything she wanted. Of course the problem was, Sinder didn't want to talk about anything, they were making her. It was horrible and it seemed a day didn't go passed that Sinder wasn't crying for at least half an hour. Now she had somehow convinced herself it would be a good idea to come and find Sam after he had specifically told her that the reason they wanted her was because it had something to do with the FAYZ.
The FAYZ. The place of her nightmares and she was willingly walking back into it? What was the matter with her?
Sinder whimpered as she watched the taxi drive away. Tears filled her eyes at the same time as her lip shaking and she very nearly broke down on the ground when she remembered how lovely Sam had sounded on the phone. Sam had kept telling her she didn't have to come. That it would be okay. That everything would be okay.
Everything would be okay.
Everything would be okay.
Sam said everything would be okay.
repeating those words in her head seemed to help somehow. Slowly she pulled out the address tucked into the waste band of her dark purple skirt and made sure the thin black leather belt was facing ahead. Ever since she returned she had become rather OCD. She had to look perfect. Everything had to be on straight.
The address was clear and she glanced around.
She had checked the way several times and was sure she knew it but still Sinder found herself hesitating.
This was a lot to be happening to her. Maybe she should just head home. Sam said he wouldn't mind if Sinder wanted to stop. But she would mind! She would mind if she gave up!
Sinder needed to find some place where she could breathe. Trees. She loved trees. Even after the FAYZ her love of gardening hadn't stopped and the only place she could really calm down was when she was in the wild. It was the reason her parent's had turned their entire garden into a plant sanctuary. There were flowers of every kind, bushes as high and thick as her, trees that towered over the house, grass and dirt laid down everywhere. It was up to Sinder to really keep the place looking nice but she liked it that way because it kept her busy and happy.
She needed to find a garden or trees...
There.
It was a house that hadn't yet been sold. It was crisp clean and new and so was the front garden. The grass was bright and cut perfectly in place with roses and tulips all around the edge of the garden with a bright white fence on the outer border. There were two medium-sized trees in either corner beside of the house that offered plenty of shade and was also bright green like the grass. It looked like someone out of a cartoon. Something so perfect it had to have been dream. It couldn't be real.
It looked beautiful. Just looking and it and Sinder could feel calm spread through her body like cooling medicine.
She had it all planned. Sinder was going to settle down under the tree, maybe shut her eyes for five or ten minutes and then she was going to head to Sam's and help out as best as she could and maybe gain some of her old self back. Her therapist had said that getting out in the world was best. He told her not to push herself but not to hide away either. So, here she was.
Sinder hurried down the street and turned left, heading into the garden and straight to the nearest tree on the side. It was bigger than she had originally thought but that just made the shading bigger for her to sit under and hide from the sun. The sun was naturally but Sinder didn't like it. It was bright... Bright like... No. No, Sinder was not going to remember that day, not while she was settled under the tree and safe. She was not going to remember that day, not while here.
Sinder slipped down and leaned against the tree. It was slightly wet on the ground and the tree felt damp but it was cool and comforting. Sinder's eyes shut and she leaned against the tree, taking slow deep breaths to calm her frustrated mind. The garden was the perfect place for her.
G*O*N*E
Emily and Dekka had never spoken in their lives. They didn't even know the other person existed, nor had they seen one another, until they somehow sat with Emily in front of Dekka on the coach while she sent Sam a text message. The two of them purposely sat and hoped no one would sit beside of them for the long ride because neither was sociable. They had brought expensive tickets at the last moment, Dekka leaving a note for her parents explaining what she was doing while Emily just told her brother to let them know she was going out.
It was a miracle the two of them were even on the same coach. They lived a long way from one another but Emily had been on a coach that passed through Dekka's town when it had broken down and it was how she ended up climbing the steps, her large backpack being stored in the compartment with her phone in hand and her mind somewhere else.
"Hey... Sam..." Emily mumbled as she took her large seat at the first empty place she could find, sitting on the isle seat to make it harder if someone wanted to sit beside of her. "I'm... On... My... Way... Going... To... Be... A... Couple... Of... Hours..." She even swung her body around facing the window to shun people away.
If anyone was more surprised at getting a call to help Sam and Astrid it would have been Emily. She had spoken to a maximum of three different people/groups in the FAYZ. There had been Jack, who had driven by and had fixed Brother's WII. Then she had been in frequent contact with that idiot Zil who had stored weapons at her home in exchange for more games, not that they could play them after a while but the collection was nice. Zil only they knew them because one of his men, Turk, had visited Brother's birthday party years back. And finally there was Caine. He had been a right nasty freak and had threatened her and her brother. Apart from that her and her brother had survive living secluded on their own. They had a small personal garden where they grew food, they had a well and, if they were careful, then they could clean and drink the water. They had then stayed out of any major fights and had hidden away in their home from the bugs and Gaia. The day Emily found out the walls had come down was the day she had been using her powers and they had just vanished.
After that Emily and her brother had been reunited with their family. Because they had not been involved and hardly anyone knew about them, they had quickly been ignored and were able to move back to their home and live life as normal.
Only that was a problem for Emily. She didn't want normal. She hated how boring it was. She wanted to get her powers back and live alone again to survive. But that was hard to do when her parents refused to let her breath. Brother was happy to have life normal again, he was also happy that now Emily was just as normal as him, but Emily wanted excitement. Which was why she jumped at the chance to get away from her smothering parents and visit the so called hero of the FAYZ. It would be nice to meet the man both Caine and Zil had hated so much.
"Excuse me?" Came a voice from directly behind her.
Emily looked up with a scowl, ready to snap at anyone who wanted to sit beside her and ruin the peace of being able to really stretch. There was a dark skinned girl behind her. She looked almost scary with a sullen face, a hoop nose ring and eyes that seemed to be focussed too much on her face for Emily's liking.
"You're going to meet Sam Temple?" Dekka said slowly. It was a guess since Sam was a common name but something about this girl in front seemed... Well the only way to put it would be FAYZ Material.
"Yes... Are you?" Emily turned around completely in her seat.
"Yeah." Dekka nodded.
Emily hesitated and moved around to sit beside of her. She only did it because it was easier than looking over her shoulder and the way she saw it, it kept other people from sitting beside either of them. Dekka frowned slightly, not liking the way she just sat down. Dekka liked her space but chose not to say anything since she was curious about this girl she had never seen before.
"Do you know why he wants us to come?" Emily demanded.
"No." Dekka said. "Who are you? I don't recognise you."
"You wouldn't." Emily said bitterly with a fake smirk. "My name's Emily. Emily Foss."
"I know you." Dekka said suddenly, looking ahead as the coach began to move like she had lost interest.
"You do?" Emily frowned. She was sure hardly anyone knew about her.
"Sam found out about you and told us all to leave you alone." Dekka explained. "He didn't want to start anything but I think he secretly hoped you might come and try and join our teams. He said you had the power too."
Emily blinked and faced forward as well. It was weird how much she didn't know. But that had always been okay as long as she knew that people know just as little about her and her family and life. But it seemed that wasn't true. It seemed more people knew about her than she originally thought.
"Who are you?" Emily asked her.
"Dekka."
"You had the power?"
"I could lift gravity."
"Got a last name?"
"Yup."
That was all the answer Emily needed. She turned back to her phone, slouching down and sending text messages back and forth between friends. Dekka didn't seem to do anything, she just sat there staring out the window in complete silence. It was half unnerving, half peaceful.
G*O*N*E
Roger and Quinn took Astrid's computer and settled in Sam and Astrid's bedroom at her desk to work together in peace. They opened a word document and began to make a set of tables on the blank page. The first table was was of a list of the mutants that had died while in the FAYZ, then they made another column of what their powers that these mutant children had, and another of how they had died. Roger did the typing with fast fingers that flashed over the keyboard in a rush, while Quinn sat by his side and rethought it over and over again in case that they might have missed any. As soon as they finished that table they made a second table, this one of the different animals that they knew of and whose powers they had taken. They made a final list including a X for those that were dead, a tick for those that were caught and a question mark for those that were unsure of. They had a lot of empty spaces for those they had no idea what the animals would be. It was slow but Roger found himself enjoying the work and Quinn preferred this than what Sam, Astrid, Kevin and Edilio were doing.
Those four had settled in the main room, moving everything out of the way and pushing it to the corner of the room against the walls so they had space in the middle of the room. Diana had put the lizard in a plastic box she had previously kept some bits of scrap and they had placed that box in the middle of the room. It might have burned the whole box down into a gooey melted mess to get free but it was still tied up and trapped with it's mouth pinned firmly shut. They had no idea what they were supposed to do with it but they wanted to test and see what kind of substitutes they could get away with. If not then they were in a lot of trouble. Sam couldn't get his light back. So they had gathered fire, torches, heaters and anything else hot and bright that could come close to Sam's light. They were going to practice and even test if it was possibly to kill it some other way that wasn't the exact way it died.
And finally Diana and Caine were not doing anything. Sam had suggested Caine stay in her room and catch some more rest but secretly he still hoped Diana would be able to talk to him now and get some more information out of him that no one else could since she was no longer screaming at him. The two of them sat on the bed, talking quiet and flicking through Diana's magazines and books that she had, but she didn't actually have very much. Mostly it was fashion or gossip. Caine quickly grew bored and threw the books down at the end of the bed.
He was bored but he didn't actually want to help out the others either. Let them do the hard work. Especially when he was still injured.
"The FAYZ is a sucky place." Diana sighed when they began to slowly talk about other things. Somehow the conversation was rounding back to the FAYZ after they had been wondering how many people were actually going to come now to help. "I mean... Everyone thinks it is a terrible place, of course. But the problem is that some people like Sam and that Kevin Creep are all kind of excited to have it back. They think they have no other purpose. I mean Kevin says that he doesn't care but the truth is he does. He wants it back. He wants to be a soldier again. And Sam doesn't want to play hero but if he isn't playing hero then he isn't doing anything. But even if that's true... How can he honestly miss the FAYZ?"
"I miss it." Caine said suddenly.
"What?" Diana whispered, turning to stare at him.
"I kind of miss it." Caine shrugged. "Don't get me wrong. I didn't enjoy the starving, or the flesh eating buts or the Gaia or any of that stuff... But I did enjoy being there. I was someone in the FAYZ. I was King, and I was Mayor and I was one of the oldest people and I was one of the strongest people." He sighed. "Out here not only am I a nobody but now I'm a fugitive that needs to stay locked up to avoid being arrested... And locked up... Do you see the irony in that? Anyway. Even before the FAYZ I was practically a nobody that everyone ignored or treated like a evil boy. I kind of miss it."
Diana looked furious. Her face had gone white, her eyes narrowed and her lips thin. Caine stared at her and wondered how long before she started screaming at him again. He knew he couldn't win with her. If he lied then she would find out and be mad at him for lying and if he told her the truth then she got pissed at her because of his views. Best just be honest and hope she understood it and if not then maybe she would get over it faster than if he lied. Caine was slowly learning the ways of a girl.
She moved and suddenly began to clean up. Diana shuffled through the room and purposely cleaned everything up and moved it all out of the way even when it didn't need to be moved. She pushed things everything under the bed, Diana went to her draws and began to resort it all out and then rearranged everything else that was on the draws and windowsill. She did this just so she didn't have to look and focus on Caine anymore. She just needed keep her eyes and hands busy. Diana was so furious with him at that moment. How could he honestly miss it? There was something wrong with him. He was just as sick in the head as when they had actually been in the FAYZ.
Caine waited, wondering how long she would be cleaning for. He gave her a few minutes but then grew impatient and decided to say the one thing to bring her back to the conversation.
"I dream of Little Pete." Caine said suddenly.
"What?" Diana's head snapped up so fast she nearly heard it snap.
"That got your attention." Caine laughed.
"So was that a joke?" Diana said, getting annoyed all over again.
Caine shook his head. "Nope. I was serious. I have them every time I go to sleep. I dream of Little Pete. He comes to me and talks in this big white empty room."
"What does he say?" Diana asked, crawling back onto the bed and kneeling in front of him.
Caine hesitated. He just wanted Diana to stop cleaning and maybe shock her but now he wasn't so sure about talking about it.
"I told you about my feelings of the FAYZ." Diana grumbled sensing his hesitance. "Be honest with me in return."
"I can't be completely sure. It's all fuzzy and confusing." Caine began. "But I do remember him thanking me. I remember him saying he was thankful and that it was time to go. I remember arguing about something and he said he would do something and then that's it. Three times I have seen him and that is all I have gotten so far. Everything else is like blocked like I'm under water and it's splashing around my ears and my visions blurred and it fades in and out like someone playing with the volume of the TV."
"That is..." Diana couldn't come up with a word and just waved her hands in the air in front of her.
There was a bang and a shriek that caused them all to jump. Diana leapt off the bed and threw open the door, sticking her head out and opening it so Caine could see too.
In the middle of the room the lizard was lying, rolling occasionally because it's arms were stuck down to its side. Beside of it was a burnt piece of wood and a bit of the table had caught fire as Kevin and Edilio furiously beat it down with tea towels. Astrid had a hand over her mouth and Sam was holding tiny fire crackers in one hand and a set of matchstick in the other.
"Did you guys try to blow it up?" Diana laughed.
"Well..." Edilio shrugged with a grin. "It was worth a shot. Onto the next one!"
"Let's try mixing two together." Astrid said. "Get the torch and get the lighter. Maybe it's a mental thing."
"Mental is the right word." Diana grinned and looked back at Caine.
Suddenly he found himself smiling. She was so beautiful. And so happy. Caine missed the FAYZ but if he had to give it up just to be with Diana and make her happy he would in a heartbeat.
G*O*N*E
It wasn't exactly healthy, but Sinder loved falling asleep outside under a cool shading tree in the sun. It was both warm, relaxing, fresh and all in all naturally perfect. She opened her eyes, smiled and took a deep breath, cleansing her lungs. The air smelt clean. It smelt fresh like laundry just out the machine. Sinder felt tears again but these were tears of happiness. If she could, she would never leave this spot ever again, she would stay there and live there. She would die there if she could. But she couldn't.
It was time for her to get up and go and meet Sam. She had promised she would meet him. God knows how long Sinder had been asleep. At least the sun was still up.
Sinder stretched her limbs and yawned loudly. She was still tired and now her back was feeling stiff but her good feeling wasn't going to leave that easily. Then, as her head was being lifted into the air as she stretched her boy, she noticed the butterfly that was settled on the back of her wrist. It was beautiful, white and plain with a black outline along the wings and a little black body. It was beautiful.
"So pretty." Sinder whispered.
And so lucky. Bugs and creatures like this were so lucky they could just live in the wild and in the world. If Sinder had to be any other creature apart from human she would chose a butterfly in a heartbeat. They had everything she wanted. They had everything she wished she could have.
Then the butterfly... It bit her! Butterflies don't bite. And yet this one had bitten her hard enough to make her shriek in shock and snap her wrist back and forth, trying to knock it off. The bite hurt like a sharp knife or needle had been driven through her flesh. The butterfly refused to let go of her skin. Finally it jumped up and flew into the air, back up into the tree where it must have come from. Sinder gasped, sitting under the tree and holding her hand to her chest. When she looked up the butterfly was still up there, watching her from a long branch.
Sinder shouted in fear again and crawled forward away from the tree. She jumped up and ran from the gates, outside and back into the streets again.
"Oh my God," Sinder sobbed rubbing her hand where two small holes were bleeding tiny droplets of blood.
She stared at the bike marks, confused and trying to remember when and where a butterfly would bite a human like that, when it suddenly began to change. It still let out small drops of blood but the outer circle of the bite marks was changing colour. It was turning green. It was turning a bright green colour. If it had been dark, Sinder would have bet the colour would have glowed. It was terrifying seeing the colour of her skin changing to a lime green and spreading from the butterfly bite. It was spreading. The colour was spreading away from the bite and all along her whole arm.
"Ah!" Sinder screamed. "Ah! Someone! Someone help! Help me please! Help me!"
Emma and Anna had still been arguing as they turned towards the house. They had reached their front door and even began to open it up when they heard the screams for help. Emma hesitated but Anna was off, racing down the pathway and around the corner, following the screams.
Anna didn't recognise her at first. They didn't know Sinder that well but her face had come up after the FAYZ because she had the power to help plants grow. She had been on the news with several other people.
"Emma! Come help!" Anna shouted over her shoulder as she ran to Sinder's side.
Sinder sobbed and rubbed her arm furiously like she wanted to clean her arm free from the green stain. Her sobbing was hysterical and she was throwing her body around, stumbling into the road and falling down. Luckily there were no cars coming at the time. She continued to rub and scratch at her arm where the bite marks were. They were still tiny and no longer bleeding but the green was still spreading even more over her whole arm, from her wrist to her elbow.
When Anna got there she had clawed her arm, scratching it. Not hard enough to bleed but certainly hard enough that it had to hurt and it left white lines all up her arm. Anna grabbed her under the arms and tried to pull her out of the road but she was kicking and screaming the whole time and making it near impossible. By the time Anna had her lying on the side walk Emma was back by her side with a mobile in hand and an expression of fear that matched Sinder.
"Should I call an ambulance?" Emma gasped.
"Yeah!" Anna gasped. "Yeah! Do that!"
Sinder sobbed and waved her green arm in the air. It didn't hurt and if anyone had felt what Sinder was feeling they probably wouldn't have been screaming or crying like she was. But it wasn't even the arm, it was the fear. Her arm was green. A bug had bitten her. It was like the FAYZ and it was horrible. She should have never come. It was a mistake. And now look at her, it was like her nightmares all coming back as one.
At least she wasn't alone. Sinder was clutching Anna's hand now as she looked up at them both with wide terrified eyes. The green in her arm had slowly stopped spreading but it was still shining.
"What the hell could do this?" Emma whispered as she held the phone to her ear.
"B-B-"
"She's trying to say something!" Anna gasped.
"B-B-But-Butterfly." Sinder gasped as her eyes rolled and she blacked out.
28) What do you think of the killer butterfly? You'll find out what's happening to Sinder in the next chapter.
29) ... Slowly running out of question. Any you guys wanna ask? About Light or anything else?
